Dodgers Fall to Rockies After Clayton Kershaw’s Rough Outing
The excitement of Opening Day as defending World Series champions was spoiled in a big way. The Dodgers came out in their first game and left a lot to be desired in their first game against the Rockies on Thursday.
Clayton Kershaw got the ball for the Dodgers and looked sharp in the first 2 innings. Then things started to unravel as he finished with 10 hits allowed and was charged with 5 earned runs. The defense behind him didn’t help though, with Corey Seagercommiting an error on a very easy groundball.
The Dodgers bullpen didn’t do much better behind Kershaw. Corey Knebel faced one batter in the 6th and struck him out to end the inning. But Jimmy Nelson came on and was all over the place with his control. He was tagged with 2 runs and 2 wild pitches.
Offensive Struggles
The Dodgers offense put up 5 runs, but it should have been much more than that. They tallied 15 hits while also leaving 14 runners on the basepaths. Combined, Los Angeles’ offense went 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position.
Cody Bellinger also hit a homerun in the 3rd innings that was negated by a baserunning blunder from Justin Turner. That ended up hurting the Dodgers in the long run, though the final score was obviously more than just a run.
The Dodgers left the bases loaded with a chance to take the lead in the 9th inning. After a Max Muncy triple and a pair of walks, the bats could not break through.
Barnes Leaves With Injury
The Dodgers will also have to assess where Austin Barnes is at after a play at the plate went awry. Barnes appeared to have cut up his hand diving back to the plate attempting to tag out a runner on a wild pitch. Los Angeles has Keibert Ruiz on the taxi squad should Barnes need a short IL stint.
Up Next for the Dodgers
The Dodgers and Rockies are back at it on Friday evening in Colorado. Trevor Bauer gets his first start in blue while the Rockies will turn to Antonio Senzatela.
Dodgers: MLB Insider Says This is Corey Seager’s Last Opening Day in LA
Well that was pretty ugly.
Poorly played and poorly managed game. Clayton’s spring training carried over to todays mess.
Exactly on all points here, Jose S. Beatty has no business being on this team, as McKinstry does everything as well as far as a utility player goes and is better offensively. It was a lame reason Roberts gave for having Beaty PH for McKinstry and as far as Kershaw is concerned, pitch count or no pitch count he should have been pulled after 5 innings , this being his first start. There also may be an issue with CK that Dodgers may not be revealing. After all, he had a rough ST too.
LA Dodgers have their work cut out big time! Starting with Clayton “Gunslinger” Kershaw (22) and the defense and offense did not help him with three errors and left to many RISP! This team better start playing together as a team stop hitting for the fences. Colorado beat them by playing small ball. I hope Dave Roberts sits Matt “Egghead” Beaty (45) and puts in Zack McKinstry (8). Friday is another game let’s win tomorrow!
“Let’s Go LA Dodgers!!!
At least they hit the ball. Hey it’s Colorado. Forget it. There’s ‘161 to go.
Concerned about our vaunted pitching staff…you know the ones every analyst in baseball claims is impregnable? Really concerned about Kershaw getting tagged three times in a row now.
Hey guys, Spring Training is over…
Very poor showing. Shouldn’t take any team lightly.